Stephen King’s poem “The Bone Church” to be adapted for TV

“If you want to hear, buy me another drink. …There were thirty-two of us went into that greensore, Thirty days in the green and only three who rose above it.”

Chris Long and David Ayer, founders of Cedar Park Entertainment, acquired the rights to Stephen King’s narrative poem “The Bone Church.” Long and Ayer plan to turn the eight-page poem into a TV series.

Chris Long is no stranger to King’s work. He was an executive producer on Audience Network’s adaptation of “Mr. Mercedes.” Long was programming chief at Audience for 18 years but left to form Cedar Park with Ayer.

David Ayer is best known for his work directing the DC comics film “Suicide Squad” as well as the hit Netflix movie “Bright.” After “Bright’s” success, Ayer signed a deal with Netflix to direct and write “Bright 2.”

Stephen King wrote “The Bone Church” in the 1960s but didn’t publish it until 2009 in “Playboy Magazine.” The poem was later revised and republished in his 2015 short story collection “The Bazaar of Bad Dreams.”

“The Bone Church” is a tale of a drunk man telling a story about when he and 31 other explorers trekked into the jungle in search of the mythic Bone Church. Throughout the story, the narrator asks for more drinks and describes the deaths of every traveler except himself and two others. For the mathematically challenged, that’s 29 deaths.

As a poem, “The Bone Church,” is a different read but the style doesn’t take away from the creepy nature of the tale. This eight-page poem is guaranteed to give you chills. It is just one of 20 short stories in the “Bazaar of Bad Dreams” anthology. Other notable stories include:

• “Ur” about a mysterious pink Kindle that contains books, newspapers, and other written works from other dimensions, and the future. This tale even has some connections to King’s magnum opus, “The Dark Tower.”
• “Obits” is another good one about a young man who discovers he can kill people by writing their obituaries prematurely.
• In “Mile 81” a young boy explores an abandoned rest stop and discovers a car that eats people. Sounds silly, I know, but it has little hints of King’s other car related novels, “Christine” and “From a Buick 8.”

Almost every story in “The Bazaar of Bad Dreams” is a hit and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some others getting their own adaptations soon.

“The Bone Church” joins a long list of King stories set to hit TV screens or movies theaters:

• “Castle Rock” debuts this summer.
• “IT” part one was a huge success in September 2017. Part two begins filming this summer.
• In January, Mike Flanagan, director of the adaptation of King’s novel “Gerald’s Game,” signed on to adapt “Doctor Sleep,” the sequel to King’s famous novel “The Shining.”
• “Mr. Mercedes” season one was a huge hit. Season two began filming in February.
• The rights to a re-adaptation of King’s famous novel (and my personal favorite) “Pet Sematary” were picked up by Paramount in December 2017. The new movie is slated for an April 19, 2019 release.
• Last, but certainly not least, following the film’s flop in the summer of 2017, “The Dark Tower” will be rebooted for TV thanks to Amazon.

In case I lost you up there, here is a list of the novels and short stories. These should get you ready for the adaptations out currently and all the hopefully amazing movies and TV shows we will see in the coming years!

• “The Bazaar of Bad Dreams” (2015) (495 pages) (Collection of short stories)
  • “The Bone Church” (8 pages) (no release date for TV show yet)
• “IT” (1986) (1138 pages) (TV movie 1990) (film 2017, part one. 2019, part two)
• “Gerald’s Game” (1992) (332 pages) (film 2017)
• “Mr Mercedes” (2014) (436 pages) (TV show 2017)
  • “Finders Keepers” (2015) (431 pages) (season 2 of Mr. Mercedes set for 2019)
  • “End of Watch” (2016) (429 pages)
• “The Shining” (1977) (447 pages) (Film 1980) (TV movie 1997)
• “Doctor Sleep” (2013) (529 pages) (presumable 2019 or 2020 release)
• “Pet Sematary” (1983) (374 pages) (film 1989) (remake 2019)
• “The Dark Tower” (series of 8 novels) (1981-2004) (over 4000 pages) (film 2017) (TV show coming soon on Amazon)

You should know by now what I am about to say: read the books before seeing the movies or watching the shows! I know there is a lot of material listed there, but you can do it. Some were listed in previous posts anyway, so you should have a head start… right?